Silver-Tongued – Friday’s Word of the Day

This is on writing, the importance of words. They are not to be regurgitated in some sort of verbal vomit to illustrate a writer’s superiority in use of vocabulary or in ability to mimic and follow trends. Words can be used to express honest thoughts and emotions. Which brings us to an unacknowledged point by speakers whose sole mission is either to fill silence or shout down the more timid. Those wishing to express themselves can be civil and polite. Admittedly, this means speakers, writers and tweeters must know some commonly accepted civil conventions. A lot of these “rules” are learned though Reading books! There are presently a few public examples of speakers who not only do not read; they only hear what they want to hear. Civilization has invented audiobooks but even that seems to challenge those who already know it all.

Sorry, it is my rant. As usual, I find things much better expressed by Kat Myrman who presents several great points below.

Today’s Word of the Day is silver-tongued. Oh dictionary.com you make this too easy! To be silver-tongued means to speak persuasively; eloquently: a silver-tongued orator.

It’s origin according to dictionary.com:

Silver-tongued may be named for the pleasing resonance of a silver bell. Even more pleasing and eloquent, therefore, would be chrysostom or chrysostomos “golden-mouthed,” from Greek chrysόstomos, from chrysόs “gold” and stόma “mouth.” As an epithet, chrysostom is reserved for the ancient Greek philosopher and historian Dio (or Dion) Chrysostom (c40–c115 a.d.), but in particular for the Greek patriarch and Church Father John Chrysostom (c347–407). On the first page of Ulysses, the unreliable, malevolent narrator refers to Buck Mulligan, who has gold fillings in his teeth and a very bawdy wit, as chrysostomos. Silver-tongued entered English in the late 16th century.

The art of eloquent speech is in short supply these days. We communicate in so many ways…

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Author: ron877

A reader, encouraging others to expand their knowledge of English through reading along with me some books I am currently reading. I will publish some reviews of books I have found notable. Comments in agreement and disagreement are welcome.
Ronald Keeler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to https://www.amazon.com.
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